"Are we to be
classed with the heathen in knowledge, or to be accounted as the
unnurtured men who are known once to have roamed through these forests in
quest of their game? Without assuming any infallibility of judgment, or
aspiring to any peculiarity of information, it doth not appear to my
defective understanding, Master Dudley, that the progress of the
settlement hath ever been checked for want of necessary foresight, nor
that the growth of reason among us hath ever been stunted from any lack of
mental aliment. Our councils are not barren of wisdom, Ensign, nor hath it
often arrived that abstrusities have been propounded, that some one
intellect, to say no more in our own favor, hath not been known to grapple
with, successfully."
"That there are men, or perhaps I ought to say that there _is a
man_, in the valley, who is equal to many marvels in the way of
enlightened gifts--"
"I knew we should come to peaceable conclusions, Ensign Dudley,"
interrupted the other, rising erect in his saddle, with an air of appeased
dignity; "for I have ever found you a discreet and consequent reasoner,
and one who is never known to resist conviction, when truth is pressed
with understanding.
Pages:
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398